My family has been exchanging gifts with our neighbors for years and it has become difficult to think of a unique and interesting gift. A perfect gift for anybody is one of the lovely wine and cheese gift baskets that are available at many retail stores. They make great gifts for friends, family, co-workers and neighbors. If you find the pre-made baskets unappealing it is fun and easy to assemble your own selections to make a very personalized gift.nnThe pre-made cheese gift baskets included processed cheese spreads. We were concerned about how long some of the baskets had been sitting around. We thought that if we made our own baskets the cheese would be of higher quality and we could choose varieties that we knew our friends liked.nnWe went to an import store and found wicker baskets to place the cheese in. The store had inexpensive cheese cutters so we purchased one to place in each of the cheese gift baskets. We then went to a local deli. This deli wraps the meat and cheeses in paper. We did not want this for the gift basket. We decided to go to the supermarket and purchase large rounds of four cheeses. We were making four cheese gift baskets so we would quarter each round and wrap the wedges in clear plastic wrap. We also purchased boxes of specialty crackers to place in the baskets. We went to a paper supply store and bought shredded paper to use in the bottom of the baskets as filler. We also bought curling ribbon to decorate the handles of the baskets.nnSimply arrange the goodies attractively in the basket. Use the filler liberally in order to make the basket look full in addition to providing cushion for the bottle of wine. You can wrap the entire basket with colored cellophane wrap if desired, but it is not necessary. Tie some curling ribbon on it and it\'s ready to go. If you need to store this prior to giving the gift, be aware that it may be necessary to keep it refrigerated. This is the reason that the pre-made wine and cheese gift baskets use the cheese spreads.nnThe neighbors all liked receiving these lovely wine and cheese gift baskets. Some of them used them for entertaining while others kept them all to themselves. We decided that they were such a hit with our neighbors that we are going to start giving these baskets to our families as well. If storage is an issue, just pre-wrap the cheeses and assemble the baskets right before the gift exchange. Whether you select one of the pre-made wine and cheese gift baskets or create your own it will be a gift that is loved by the recipient.
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